‘It’s killing me’ – Lewis Hamilton in agony after driving bouncing Mercedes and is in race to be fit for Canada GP

LEWIS HAMILTON claimed that his dodgy Mercedes is  “killing” him.

The Brit suffered agonising back pain in his bouncing car at yesterday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix and there were fears he could miss Sunday’s race in Canada.

During the Baku contest, in which Hamilton bravely finished fourth, he complained on the radio: “Argh, my back is killing me.”

He had to be helped out of his car, which Merc chief Toto Wolff described as a “s***box” after the race.

Hamilton said: “That was the most painful race I’ve experienced. There were a lot of moments where I didn’t know if I was going to make it to the end.

“Or whether I was going to keep the car on track as at high speed I nearly lost it several times. The battle with the car was intense.

“The thing was bouncing so much, there were so many times I was nearly going into the wall, that was a concern safety-wise — 180mph smashing into the wall.

“I don’t think I’ve ever really had to think about that as a racing driver, keeping it out of the wall at that high speed — a very strange experience.

“The only thing was biting down my teeth with pain and just adrenaline.

“I cannot express the pain you experience,  especially on the straight here. In the end you are just praying for it to end.”

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Hamilton now faces a race to be fit for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal this week.

Last night he vowed to battle on, tweeting: “Even when it’s painful, still we rise. Thanks for the love, see you all next week.”

Earlier he had said: “I’ve been doing cryotherapy and you go in there for four minutes and it’s bloody cold. I am biting down and just gritting.

“I have to think of all the people that rely on me to get those points, so that’s  what I focused on.

There were a lot of moments where I didn’t know if I was going to make it to the end.

Lewis Hamilton

“But this is definitely the worst for me.”

When quizzed if he was worried whether Hamilton would be able to race in Montreal, Wolff said: “Definitely. You can see it is not muscular, it goes deep into the spine.

“The solution could be to have someone on reserve, which we do at any race.”

Merc team-mate George Russell was third behind Red Bull duo Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

Russell  had declared the bouncing cars — a consequence of new design rules —  an accident waiting to happen. He said: “It wasn’t nice. I was pleased to see the race come to a close.

“Every single corner of every single lap —  it was pretty brutal.”